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Published: January 21st 2007
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Firestarter
Alison sparkles on New Year's Eve Happy New Year New Year, new continent. Almost as far as we'll get from home, yet a whole lot more like home than anywhere we've been so far.
Except that it wasn't minus 4 on New Year's Eve. And you can plan a barbeque (complete with shrimp of course) further than 12 minutes in advance.
Also a lot more homey than anywhere we've stayed, thanks to the excellent and endless hospitality from Alison and Shay (thanks again guys!) - it's handy having family in far flung places. Especially handy when they can direct you to a rather fine spot for catching the New Year fireworks over Sydney Harbour.
We were lucky they were willing to take us out in public after David tried to walk through a glass door at the back of their flat. He had already watched Russell fail at the task ten minutes previously. Thankfully the glass was strong enough to take the assault.
Obviously the laugh they got from watching was enough to convince them we could be seen together amongst Sydney's new year revellers. Or perhaps it was just the opportunity to extract a little more Michael in front of some people
who were yet to hear the story.
Whatever the reason, we managed to find a good spot for our day. Although our setup was modest compared to some around us with tents and barbeques, it was a good patch for the 8 of us, and our Scotland flag. Yes, despite a contingent of only three, we were the dominant nationality amongst our bunch.
The oohs and aaahs were genuine during the incredible display at midnight. And no, there is nothing childish about sparklers. Doesn't everyone love playing with fire?
With a few days in Sydney after New Year, we had a chance to see some of the sights, and to meet a few of Alison and Shay's more colourful neighbours, some rainbow lorikeets who dropped in for nibbles at 4 each afternoon. If the grapes weren't quickly forthcoming they certainly let you know their displeasure.
We also squeezed in a trip to the
Blue Mountains, a couple of hours outside Sydney, which were unfortunately more grey than blue on the day we chose. There would almost certainly have been some stunning views, if it hadn't been for the clouds!
Road Trip Grey clouds were the least
of our weather concerns when we headed out on the first road trip of our year away.
With bush fires raging across Victoria and New South Wales, our trip south from Sydney to Melbourne was punctuated with a night of apocalyptic looking skies as our tent and hire car were covered in a thin layer of black ash carried on the clouds.
With temperatures reaching 38 degrees some days, we saw plenty of evidence of fires and the damage they can do. It was sad to see so many dead trees and dried up river beds along the way. One river which hadn't dried up was the River Clyde, where we had to stop for some tasty fish and chips.
The extreme conditions did nothing to diminish the awesome views as we reached the
Great Ocean Road itself.
The wildlife seems fairly resistant to the weather (if not the cars) as we spotted kangaroos, echidnas and penguins along the way. The penguins being particularly entertaining as they make the seemingly impossible decision to come in from the sea and nest for the night on the beaches around the
12 apostles.
Less resistant was the tent we were using
as our home. We returned to it one afternoon to discover a broken pole that finally gave out in the face of some horrendously strong sea breezes. Running repairs with a needle and thread and the saw attachment from our Leatherman knife were no doubt entertaining for the surrounding campers.
Our manual labour wasn't to end there either. Although our afternoon of berry picking was a little more rewarding given the chance to stuff our faces with boysenberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and marionberries. A very sweet end to the day.
Grand Day Out We were to round off our trip along the Great Ocean Road with a stop off in Melbourne for the small matter of day at the
Australian Open tennis, the first Grand Slam of the season.
Excitement over the event kicked in when we arrived at the venue the day before to collect our tickets for the opening day on Rod Laver Arena. Think Centre Court but with a roof. And without strawberries. Or, mercifully, Cliff Richard.
Our luck was in with the schedulers very kindly arranging to show matches including three of last years four finalists in the Men's and Women's draw.
Carolyn seemed particularly keen to see a certain Swiss big cheese, and managed, despite the nose, to get some close up shots of the man himself during the warm up. As you'll see from our photos, he's human after all...
Being the first day, Federer, Baghdatis and Mauresmo were up against lesser opponents so the action wasn't terribly dramatic. Unlike the clash between the Serbian and Croatian fans outside the court, that we managed to avoid.
Despite this little Balkan barmy the day was clearly a hit as we managed to take in another couple of matches on the smaller courts, and picked up a few of the chants. We're sure the Chi Chi Chi, Le Le Le, Viva Chile will come in handy in March. Not so sure about the Sexy Baghdatis one right enough.
During our brief stop off in Melbourne, we managed a quick trip to St Kilda to see what the 'It' crowd were sporting at the beach this season. Clearly sunglasses with shades the size of a small dinner plate are the order of the day.
Avoiding the shades envy we headed to the pier to watch a bunch of enthusiastic
individuals surfing across the waves, tethered to some sort of kite/parachute hybrid. It looked like a whole lot of fun, and a whole lot of showing off from the more adept participants.
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Slainte
Some great pictures there, particularly love the 12 apostles. And the photo of Carolyn showing the size of sunglasses these days - same as they've ever been, it's just her armspan that's short... or maybe that's the joke you were making, in which case you've doubtless been punished appropriately. Kev